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gear grinding

I have an '81 320i and (too) have trouble getting into 2nd in the cold..
I figured it was just the synchro's getting tired after 120k miles.
Second gear is probably the most abused out of the 5.

One thing I did that helped a lot was get the transmission oil
changed. The BMW garage I go to makes up a 'special mixture'
which is probably some mix of lighter oil and maybe some teflon
additive or something. Anyway, it helped a whole bunch.

The mechanic has lots of experience getting old bimmers
to work well in the cold.

Where as it used to be hard to shift into 2nd at around 0C and
*really* hard at -30C, now it is hard at -20C (but easy above that).
It hasn't dropped to -30C (yet) so I don't know about that (yet).

This is IMO common on lots of old cars when the synchros start to
complain. You could also try double clutching (drive in first,
put the clutch in, drop into neutral, let the clutch out, maybe rev
the engine a bit, put the clutch back in, shift into second).

I have driven new cars that after sitting all night at -35C are
quite difficult to shift gears for the first few kilometers.

chris